The Meta Quest 2 VR headset sees its price greatly increased

If we needed more proof that the tech world is running upside down these days, the latest comes to us from Meta. Two years after the launch of the Oculus Quest 2 standalone virtual reality headset, the convention would have liked that if its price were to be revised, it would be down. But it is indeed the opposite that will happen: from August 2022, the price tag will be inflated by 100 € for the two models available.

It will therefore be necessary to pay 449 € and 549 € respectively for the 128 GB and 256 GB versions of the headset, instead of the prices of 349 € and 449 € still valid for a few days. Price increases are also to be expected on accessories, for example the rigid Elite headband. To pass the pill, the essential rhythm game Beat Saber will be available to all new Quest 2 purchasers until December 31, 2022.

Rising manufacturing costs as justification

To justify this increase, Meta unsurprisingly evokes the current conjecture and the violent inflation of the price of raw materials, which weigh heavily on the cost of production of the helmet. The company also highlights the “billions of dollars” invested “to foster and grow a thriving VR ecosystem”and ensures that these price increases will allow it “to continue to invest in the research and development of groundbreaking new products that will take the VR industry to new heights”.

It is not the first time, with the eminently complex period that the world is currently going through, that a technological product has seen its price adjusted upwards. We remember, for example, the increase applied in January 2022 by Nvidia to its RTX 30 Founders Edition graphics cards, a year and a few months after the launch of the first models in the series. However, the case of the Quest 2 is remarkable for the proportional magnitude of the increase: expressed as a percentage, the increase recorded by the entry-level model, at 128 GB of storage, amounts to a dizzying 27% . The situation is even more spectacular in the United States, since in its native lands, this same model registers + 33%, from 299 to 399 $ (the 256 GB model, meanwhile, goes from 399 to 499 $).

A new, more reasonable approach to the market?

It’s worth noting that upon its initial release in the fall of 2022, the Quest 2 was being priced at an extremely aggressive price point. Its entry price of €299/349 was, and still is today, completely unprecedented for a VR headset with this level of equipment, and even though the manufacturing cost of the headset has never been made public, there is little doubt that it was being sold at a steep loss by Facebook/Meta.

This was part of the company’s strategy to accelerate the adoption of VR by the general public at all costs, all while behind the scenes were already preparing major projects concerning the famous metaverse. Only then, two years later, said projects proved to be staggeringly expensive for Mark Zuckerberg’s company, and even an organization with such an opulently filled bank account could not afford to contemplate a $13 billion abyss without reacting. We would therefore dare to conjecture that these new prices also reflect a new, much more reasonable approach to the market.

Finally, remember that Meta plans to launch a new model of standalone VR headset by the end of 2022, which we know today under the code name Project Cambria. If it is rumored that the device could ultimately be called Quest Pro, it will not replace the Quest 2, and will be positioned much higher in the range: the rumors of the corridors evoke a price higher than 1000 €. As for a possible “real” Quest 3, it will probably still be very patient.